New Hampshire
Bill requiring NH voters to consider school tax caps clears House
Republicans in the New Hampshire House have passed a bill to require local voters to consider capping school property taxes every two years. The proposal, which cleared the House along near party lines Wednesday, is the latest in a series of efforts by Republican leaders to curb growth in local school spending.
Under the bill, voters across New Hampshire would weigh in at every November election on whether to block increases in school spending by capping local tax increases and SAU administrative spending.
Before the House adopted the plan, its lead sponsor, Weare Republican Rep. Ross Berry, argued that the more people vote on a tax cap, the better local spending decisions would reflect the will of people.
“The ultimate form of local control is allowing the most voters to opine on the issue,” Berry said.
But critics of the proposal, including Londonderry Republican Rep. Kristine Perez, said the policy’s bottom line objective is less about maximizing voters’ participation than reducing school distinct spending, regardless of local circumstances.
“Putting a cap on the school portion of property taxes is just another way of saying ‘cutting school budgets,’ ” Perez said.
GOP leaders in the House have for the past few years pushed policies aimed at limiting local local property tax increases by giving voters new tools to curb government spending. But voters have largely rejected these.
After the vote, House Majority Leader Jason Osbornse said this policy will be different.
“Today we delivered. If school boards want to jack up your property taxes, they’re going to have to convince voters at the ballot box, not outlast them in a gymnasium at midnight,” Osborne said.
But Megan Tuttle, who leads NH-NEA, the state’s largest teachers union, said this bill would only harm schools that are already under strain due to rising healthcare and special education costs.
“Instead of fixing our state’s broken public education funding system, these politicians are pushing yet another attempt to implement arbitrary school budget caps that will make it very difficult for school districts that are already underfunded,” she said.
The bill now moves the New Hampshire Senate. Republican leaders there have been leery of past efforts by the House to impose caps on local school spending.
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New Hampshire
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New Hampshire
Concord City Manager Receives ‘Satisfactory’ Review, 2.5% Raise, But Sabbatical Request Gets Trimmed
Schultz said she “highly respects” Aspell, too, but there was a “dissonance between reality” when eyeing what the public and city employees were earning.
Ward 6 City Council Aislinn Kalob, too, would not be voting for the increase, saying it had been “heavily on my mind since we’ve had our nonpublic sessions,” which lasted about six hours of work. She appreciated Kretovic clearly outlining the job of city manager. But people were frustrated with the city manager, and she saw that in the comments in online forums.
“I do feel, after really digging into this, and learning about his job,” she said, “and thinking toward the future when, eventually, at some point, somebody new will be sitting in that seat, we are the ones who direct policy and he is the one that implements it… there is anger out there that should be directed more toward us.”
Kalob said, too, a room full of firefighters, upset about their contract, also made voting for the wage increase something she could not consider.
Michele Horne of Ward 2 echoed similar concerns to Schultz, saying there was significant “wage disparity” between the public and staff and the city manager. She also agreed with Kalob’s point that previous councils created this contract.
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